Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 1 2 3 LastLast
Results 16 to 30 of 40

Thread: re-boot corrupted WinXP ?

  1. #16
    Ultimate Member Rocketmech's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2001
    Location
    Corpus Christi, Texas
    Posts
    5,739
    What problems are you having with our advice ?

    Did you test the Seagate drives with Seatools ?

    Did you try loading the SATA drivers using F6 during setup ?

    Please focus on the questions and be precise in your answers.

  2. #17
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    30 seconds worth of diplomacy

    "What problems are you having with our advice ? "
    ....................none, it's just not the right solution.........

    "Did you test the Seagate drives with Seatools ? "
    ................yes. (post# 14)............

    " Did you try loading the SATA drivers using F6 during setup ?"
    ...............yes....................


    ...................current diagnosis>>>>>>>>>if Sony Tech Rep is correct: BIOS in Vaio
    is programmed to limit HDD detection to 320gb - but for the OEM OS only.
    ...........Meaning the HDD is not recognized correctly or completely and nothing will load past the mass controllers- but for Microsoft ONLY
    .............thus, Linux will load


    ........i think>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>gotta go


    Respects,

  3. #18
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    American Ingenuity or Planned Obselence?

    ...........WELP, IT'S OFFICIAL...........
    I am the victim of "older" technology

    I've made the calls to the local tech folks in business and at the nearby Universities. They confirm two sad facts,:
    1. my Vaio [circa 2006 A.D.] has a built in limit of 320 gigs.
    2. This is in the hardware and cannot be changed.

    poopey. Didn't see that comin'

    I can only guess Linux loads because of a different base language. But, that's only a guess.

    Sony, bless them, made sure: I knew, that they knew, that i have exceeded the recommended hdd limit. In their estimation I can not do what I am doing, and there's a real good chance God will punish me.
    They also told me that my warranty ( which passed away in March) is now officially void.


    >>>>>>>>>so, for my next adventure,,,,,,,,,I plan on removing one hdd from the other rig, installing it in this computer and "stealing XP: somehow.
    The known problem is that the hdd that has Win XP on it is specifically config for a specific hardware build.

    aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

  4. #19
    Lifetime Friend of Staff
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Sheboygan, WI
    Posts
    3,921
    Beat Sony to their silly game, as a PCI ATA 133 card for IDE drives or a PCI Sata card and use up to 4 of the largest hdds made for IDE or SATA.

    Sony does not have the 48-bit LBA Technology in there BIOS for that machine and should you install XP SP3 on let us say a 60 GB Patition, then when done with all the installing, go into disk management and pick up the rest of the 320 GB hdd.
    Yes the
    48-bit LBA Technology in the service packs allows us to beat the onboard BIOS limitations.

    Those controller cards have a BIOS that lets us work around the limitations of the mobo BIOS>



  5. #20
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    Official Opening of Suggestion Box

    Thanks for idea Train I will put it in the “up- for-adoption” box.

    for the record -there are four SATA ports already, and with 500 already on one hdd
    a couple terabytes is nbd.
    I am still getting over the loss of 10 years effort from my last foolish move,
    so ____will think things through.


    You do point to a path, though..............

    I am going to turn around in circles for a bit, but my thinking goes like this:

    When LSD and Unix were co-habing at Berkley, (“the sixties”)
    Fortran Programing was an elective course I took, and
    Yes, I actually used a key-punch machine.
    My point being I have been around long enough to read the writing on the wall.

    Make do, kind-of
    -or,
    upgrade.

    I've got comfy with Vaio's look and have explored her inners.
    Even though I think the fan is in the wrong place,
    all in all it does what I need done & with out a big fuss.

    If I were to upgrade, I would do so based on no more than another 5 years use.
    Tiger and Egg offer better deals on mobo than on pieces parts, and
    my processor is a single core / there is only 1GB RAM and av cards are, obviously, outdated


    .......like I say..........i'm a gonna think 'bout it a while.........


    ps...........why not go all the way........64 bit ?



    Respects to all,

  6. #21
    Lifetime Friend of Staff
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Sheboygan, WI
    Posts
    3,921
    At least a dual cpu and plenty of ram.

    optimum
    XP - 1 GB
    Win 7 32-bit - 2 GB
    Win 7 64-bit - 4 GB

    Example - my dual core laptops let me scan graphics about 4 in the time I can do one on my desktop.

    Do not forget mwave, http://www.mwave.com/mwave/index.asp? thery are good too.

  7. #22
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    Thumbs up ........fly-by note

    ........a quick thanks to train for the post

    ...............never knew mwave existed
    quick look impressed me with prices but particularly
    liked clean, comprehensive product info

    >>right now I'm wandering around Intel's site.
    It annoys me no one can tell me why or where
    the 320 gig limit is placed (sic., programmed?)

    >>I'm thinkin' north or south bridge of my little 945 chipset.


    .................don't have much time for fun today..............but, again i appreciate the info !


    Respects,
    ..............................gone

  8. #23
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    Talkin' to myself out loud

    I believe (don't know for sure) the chipset would most likely contain my 320 limit factor,
    ..............in the old days: "southbridge" of a chip 'set' controlled hdd input/output
    ...........................don't know yet: what my little Intel 945 G/P "knows"

    Need to find out if Sony "locked up" the BIOS >>>>>>>>>>.doubt it
    ..........that would definitely handicap my options
    ...............i think i can upgrade both the chipset & the Pentium D 930

    only have one more socket for mem upgrade.
    Sony's specs say Vaio can only go 2 gigs Ram
    I'm gonna look at that too -------don't believe it

    the thing is, it's a dangerous line .....and it's always dollars
    ........throw enough at the wall to stick, and, maybe
    fix the problem

    then<

    ".....gee...., if i woulda got this, then i could do that..........."

    and hindsight sucks !!!!!!!!!!!!!



    mobo or pieces parts
    mobo or pieces
    mobo or eerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


    ..........gone

  9. #24
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    Addendum

    this weekend's experiments:


    >>>take out 5oo gig hdd & sub with the 160 with working XP : "see what can be done"

    >>try to load XP on the 5oo, with open SuSE 10.3 installed and working

    >combination of the two.....

  10. #25
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    Captains Log, Star Date.....................

    so far:
    remove 500 gig and try 160 gig with XP loaded and running fail
    try procedure in SATA port 2 fail
    3 fail
    4 fail

    in place of working 160 gig, substitute
    previously "dead" Seagate 160 (Note - the one "rewritten")
    repeating above procedure: fail
    fail
    fail
    fail
    >>>>>>>>>>>as the common factor was the classic: "no drive
    recognized">>>switched to Windows recovery counsel and
    BOOTCFG fail
    FIXMBR fail
    SYSTEMROOT fail
    FIXBOOT fail
    CHKDSK "No Drive recognized"
    DISKPART "unrecoverable problem"
    MORE "immovable partition"

    >>>>>>>so, add the working 500 gig to the mix (Port 1 with the "dead" 160 in SATA2.
    Go into YaST, LVM partition manager and
    remove partitions, repeat XP load fail
    reformat with DOS fail
    reformat with FAT 32 (my original undoing, i think) fail

    Take 500 out of the loop and try to load SuSE 10,3 on "dead" 1 fail
    i came close, but GRUB would not boot....so,

    using the 5oo again, i partition "dead" 160, using Linux swap and ext 3:
    disconnect 500 and try to load SuSE again, .....SIGNS OF LIFE !
    installation cd went as far as loading every thing necessary (Repositories, Software, Drives, Network Config., Cards. EVEN the Online updates. All this on the "accepted" partition structure.
    .........then........GRUB >>>>>>>>> "will now reboot:........... fail

    i suppose i could have waited longer than a half hour, but, i didn't

    This then, is a more or less accurate summary of attempts so far. There were other "tweaks" and false steps and I may not be correct in order or of terms but the end result's the same FAIL

  11. #26
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    Captain's last entry........Where the hell's Spock !!!

    the one odd thing and the string i am going to follow next is

    The "dead" 160 only comes up as a "149" gigs in SuSE LVM (logical volume manager)

    i'm real suspicious that the partitions are stiil there. at the time of "The Event" i had approx 500-700 mb on either side of what was then a hdd of only dvd downloads.
    ......what adds to my suspicion, is that, the "ftab" label was "VIDEO"
    .......odd, really, really odd.



    ......probably be off line for awhile>>>>>>>>>>gonna try some things i shouldn't

    all said,

    Respects

  12. #27
    Lifetime Friend of Staff
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Sheboygan, WI
    Posts
    3,921
    The "dead" 160 only comes up as a "149" gigs


    That is correct.

    In "base 10 / decimal", (the way most of us were taught in school), 160 GB means 160 x 1,000,000,000 (10^9) = 160,000,000,000 bytes.

    In "base 2 / binary", (the way computers work), 160,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 (2^30) = 149.0116119 GB.

    Either way you say it, (160 GB decimal or 149 GB binary), your hard drive will still hold 160,000,000,000 bytes (characters) worth of data.

    For more on this subject, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte and scroll down to "Consumer confusion".

  13. #28
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    Unhappy .......aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

    Train - you're right, you're right, you're right!

    if i would have paid any attention+++the spec's are right in front of me, on my Vaio spec sheet.!!

    I'm approaching my frustration quota for the day

    .........but, on my old XP set up, my disk info was at 160 and I had got use to doing all my partitions and file organization by that.

    although truthfully, I have a 32" Samsung I use as my monitor and I loved to watch the defarg in all the pretty colors

    .................................................. ......................................

    Now >>>riddle me this>>>>>>>>>>>>

    i take the "dead" one, and after exhausting RAID, iSCSI and Logical Volume possibilities,

    for no good reason, i use the 500 to partition. Again .

    10 gig, primary, swap
    10 gig, primary, FAT32
    129 (because I could not partition anymore)all NTFS.

    ,Im thinkin' anything Windows could possibly recognize. ! !

    The Windows Install program won't buy It


    BUT,
    AND THIS IS THE W T F PART

    Linux ;likes it!

    Yeah, that's right...........
    I am now, having this little chat with myself on open Suse .......................AGAIN

    I GOT A REINCARNATED HDD THAT ONLY WORKS WITH LINUX

    WTF !

    My computer-dude friend calls my rig: SONYpos
    I don't think that stands for. Performs Operations Silently !

    I'm beginning to think she's going through a change of life



    I've had enough.....................blew most of Saturday up and what do i have to show for it

    more Linux!

    WTF

  14. #29
    Lifetime Friend of Staff
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Sheboygan, WI
    Posts
    3,921
    That silly 137 GB BIOS limitation will eat you up every time with XP.

    Try this, make a 100 GB partition, install XP and the Service packs.

    Now install the needed motherboard drivers.

    Now go into disk management and pick up the rest of the hdd.

    Or if you slipstream SP3 to XP SP1 cd, you should be able to do the samething with XP as Linux does. The lack of the 48-bit is what is killing you.

  15. #30
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    28

    Waterdog Wearily Wages War With Who, What, Where and WHYYYYYYYYYYYY

    FIRST >>>>>>>>>>> Train..............TY

    glad to know someone's payin' attention
    and not afraid to speak up.

    *******************

    In the first four and a half hours of Sunday morning, I have been able to accomplish the following -
    1. crash hdd, Again
    2. download (my close personal friend) SuSE 10.3, Again.



    *******************


    with this disclaimer - i dunnit speekinzee tekininloeegikal turninnologly didn nun good -
    these are the main points

    >>with only the "dead and now bourne again" powered up: I went into PM and set up the 100 Gig partition you recommended, NTFS

    >>as expected, Win Install disk would not recognize a drive inany of four possible slots

    >>so, off too recoverey....away i did go

    >>A sum total of the experience is_


    +

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •